John (The Wrench) Wenzell

Well about me, I am 43 born in 1961, I have always liked cars. When I was growing up I had go-carts, dirt bikes etc. My step father Jerry Buddin was a paint and body man, so I was already destined to like Automobiles. My brother Jerry and I where we grew up we had some neighbors move in. His name was Danny Jones and he had a 1967 Olds 442. I guess I would have to say he was the inspiration of my brother and I as far as Racing goes.

When I was 16 I worked at a car lot detailing cars to be sold. I had dropped out of school like an idiot but you know, you could not tell me anything I was at that age. My 1st real car was a 1969 Chevelle Malibu with a 350 cu., autotrans, Well you know I converted from auto to a 4 speed on the floor, Put some crager mags on it and my step father painted a Black color with some flakes in it, I made it a super sport, installed a SS hood and re did the gear ratio to a 4:56.

Installed a Tunnel Ram two fours with carter afb carbs. I was happy and then it caught on fire one Sunday when I was on my way to race someone. I pulled the engine and trans and now I wish I would of kept the car. I bought a 55 Chevy, it had flames painted on it. I installed my engine in it.

My mother remarried and we moved to the other side of town, of course right a way my brother and I met the locals, had fun cruising and racing. A fellow came up to me and wanted to trade me a V8 Vega panel wagon for my 55 Chevy and I did. Well it was a 350 cu. engine with 3 deuces, I rebuilt the engine and fixed it up and did the car show thing. I met another guy that had a V8 Vega panel wagon with a supercharger on it, His name was Mike Bozard. We cruised together. His Vega was Tubbed with a sub frame and massive rear tires.

So he helped me do the same with my Vega, I cut it out and he installed a sub frame under the unibody and I bought his narrowed rear end with rims and tired. He went on to a narrowed Ford 9 inch. I had it painted and striped by my still good friend Don Owens. He had a Ford Pinto at the time with a V8 and 4 speed. We also cruised together and raced each other. My Vega was running 12:30 in the 1/4 mile. I can not remember what he was running, I do know I out ran him a couple of times.

Well by that time I was around twenty one, and got married to my long time girl friend and we had a child on the way. So I had to sell my car and be responsible. I did get my GED and was working at a bank in operations. Well the marriage did not last too long. So after I was divorced I bought another Vega. This time it was a hatch back. I knew all the tricks and built it up. Installed a Chevy 355 cu. with a Tunnel ran two fours. Installed a Chevy 10 bolt rear end, left it a unibody car and did a lot of suspension work. Well this Vega ran a 11:90 in the 1/4 mile and on the NOS it ran 11:04 1/4 mile.

Well I got married again and sold the Vega, I need the money to buy a Porsche that was on the bank repo lot. What a mistake but I did have fun with it and made money when I sold it. My wife at the time was not happy with me racing cars anyway. Well that marriage did not last so guess what, no I did not build another car. My brother did, he built a V8 Vega hatch back and it was faster than what I used to have, but he did learn from me. Ha Ha....

He had to sell it for some reason, I think he had an offer he could not refuse. I did buy the engine from him. I was now working for a computer company as a senior technician, I have a gift for computers I guess, I am Microsoft Certified and that is hard to believe for a 9th grade drop out. I met up with Steve Wilson, I went to work for him. We bought the Z-Car seen in the photo's of him from a good friend Bruce Holland. We stripped the car and re-did it. I sold Steve the 406 cu. Engine that I bought from my brother. We had a fun couple of years playing around with the Z-Car.

My brother bought a Z-car and it sat in my back yard for a couple of years. I quit Steve and went to work for a mortgage company ( mistake) I was laid off from them.

Well I did it, my brother Jerry had a 280z parked at my house for about three years. I built an 86 SS Monte Carlo and running it for a while. I was laid off from work and wanted to brush up on my paint and body skills. Looked at my brother’s 280z and said why not. Fixed all the rust, dents. My two Dalmatian dogs had used the top of the car for a tree house. It was in bad shape. Too much damage for me to fix, but with the help of one of my best friends Monroe was able to straighten it up. I think that night we used almost a gallon of body filler and after air filing and so on was able to get it back into shape. Then I Painted it. Had to replace the floor pans, removed door windows, installed lexan, removed door panels and gutted the doors. Installed aluminum side panels.

So I said what the hell lets try it. It started out as a 78 280Z, did not like the front end so I put on a 70 240Z front end with spoiler and lens caps. Painted it with Duron flat black. Installed a 4 point roll cage, drive shaft safety loop, 5 gallon fuel cell, two Holley 110 blue fuel pumps with braid. My brother Jerry already had purchased a set of hooker headers for it. I made some some front motor plates out of 1/4 inch aluminum and installed a mid motor plate. I also made a new transmission cross member. My brother Jerry redid the suspension with all new bushing's and beefed it up. It started out with my sbc 412 cu engine out of my SS Monte Carlo and did surprisingly well at the drag strip.

Had to pull out the rear fenders after the first pass, it was cutting ridges in the slicks. Suspension was traveling to low. My brother Jerry has fixed it now by putting on front end limiters and also limiting the rear travel. Now the 240z has a 390 gear ratio running 28x9 slicks. We have broken some half shafts, but our good friend Monroe was able to use a lathe and beefed up the rear differently drive shafts. So far it has held up except for one time when it toughted the front tires about 60 feet, then one of them gave up on the next pass.

The car ran a 6.70 1/8 mile at 106 mph and we were happy, kept tuning and adjusting trying different combinations, transmissions etc. The turbo 3 speed was awesome but left to many parts. We were running about 6.50 1/8 then. We switched to a power glide and it was gentler on parts. We even shot a 225hp NOS and the car lived, it was a wild ride running 6.20 1/8 mile at 114 mph.


Well I finally was able to find a decent job again, Worked hard and since being laid off I had tightened my belt and was able to save some money. I have all ways wanted a supercharger, I checked into the Pro charger but the one I wanted to buy was about $8000.00. So I opted for the old roots style. It looks good, sounds good and runs good as well. I am able to change boost pressure by simply changing a pulley. I can always grow with it, I can switch to alcohol etc.

So I built a super charged 355cu. For the SS Monte Carlo and decided to try it in the Z-Car first. The little 355 consist of a callies steel crank, iron eagle rods, completely balanced, trw forged blower pistons,4 bolt main 350 blocked bored 30 over, had the block o-ring. Running a solid roller blower cam, Eldebrock victor aluminum heads. Noticed the blower intake ports were to small to mount to the heads. Had to find adapter plates to adapt the intake to the heads. It fit in the Z-Car engine compartment like a glove even with the new thicker griffin radiator.

The first pass was a 6.30 1/8 and after tuning it runs 6.09 1/8 mile at 121 mph. Drive shafts seem to be holding for now. It is a wild ride, have to do easy burnouts and be gentle taking off but man does pull on the other end. I am afraid of running it in the 1/4 mile but my brother Jerry said no problem you can't go through life scared. But I said well if we are running 121 mph in the 1/8 can you imagine the top end in a quarter. I beefed up the roll bar, added down chutes along the side of the doors and tied it to the firewall and installed a 5 point seat belt harness. One day we might make a 1/4 mile pass.

My brother and I are still tuning and are having fun doing it. The car hooks so well with the stock suspension. We did buy a Dana 60 narrowed up for the car, but my brother Jerry wants to make it a street car and wants to leave it stock appearing, so I am going to build me an outright race car with the 76 260z I have. Pictured is another 71 240Z, my old business partner and I purchased this race car and completely re-vamped it.


****NOTE*****
06/27/2005
We finally did it. Our goal to push the little Z-Car into the 5's in the 1/8 mile on stock suspension and we did it Friday night 06/24/2005 at one of our local Drag Strips. Every one running was off at least 2 tenths, even we were not running as fast as before 6.10, but after some jetting and tuning with timing we gained it back and then some. We went from a 6.32 to 6.03, then a 5.97 with a 1.40 60 ft. time at 122 Mph. It was flying. The cooler temp. at night helped. Every one was wanting to know why we were not spinning, we were hazing the tires about mid-track. I told them it was the independent stock suspension that was helping up hook. I think the Z-Car will go faster at a better hooking track. Remember we have to do easy burnouts and easy launches to keep from braking the half shafts, so if we stop hazing the tires mid-track we should be able to pick up a couple of tenths. I will keep everyone informed. I have to admit 5's on stock suspension is a feat all on its on. The little Z-Car is together than you think.

Leave me some input on the Cars you have or building. If you have any questions about fabrication / engine modifications or problems, drop me a note.